diff --git a/src/lib/intake/turn.test.ts b/src/lib/intake/turn.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bc11e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/intake/turn.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from "vitest";
+import {
+  MAX_ANSWER_LENGTH,
+  MAX_QUESTIONS,
+  canAskMore,
+  sanitiseTurns,
+  type Turn,
+} from "@/lib/intake/turn";
+
+function turns(count: number): Turn[] {
+  return Array.from({ length: count }, (_, i) => ({
+    question: `Question ${i + 1}?`,
+    answer: `Answer ${i + 1}`,
+  }));
+}
+
+describe("MAX_QUESTIONS", () => {
+  it("is capped at seven", () => {
+    // Past about seven, people abandon the form and the developer gets a worse
+    // brief than a one-line email would have produced.
+    expect(MAX_QUESTIONS).toBe(7);
+  });
+});
+
+describe("canAskMore", () => {
+  it("allows a first question", () => {
+    expect(canAskMore([])).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("allows questions up to the cap", () => {
+    expect(canAskMore(turns(MAX_QUESTIONS - 1))).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("refuses at the cap", () => {
+    expect(canAskMore(turns(MAX_QUESTIONS))).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("refuses beyond the cap", () => {
+    // The transcript arrives from the browser, so it can be anything.
+    expect(canAskMore(turns(50))).toBe(false);
+  });
+});
+
+describe("sanitiseTurns", () => {
+  it("keeps well-formed turns unchanged", () => {
+    const input = [{ question: "Why?", answer: "Because." }];
+    expect(sanitiseTurns(input)).toEqual(input);
+  });
+
+  it("truncates the transcript to the cap", () => {
+    // A client could post a thousand turns to blow up the prompt and the bill.
+    expect(sanitiseTurns(turns(500))).toHaveLength(MAX_QUESTIONS);
+  });
+
+  it("caps an over-long answer", () => {
+    const [turn] = sanitiseTurns([{ question: "Why?", answer: "x".repeat(50_000) }]);
+    expect(turn.answer).toHaveLength(MAX_ANSWER_LENGTH);
+  });
+
+  it("drops turns with no answer", () => {
+    const result = sanitiseTurns([
+      { question: "One?", answer: "Yes" },
+      { question: "Two?", answer: "   " },
+    ]);
+    expect(result).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+
+  it("survives malformed input from the browser", () => {
+    // These come off the wire as JSON; TypeScript guarantees nothing here.
+    expect(sanitiseTurns(null as never)).toEqual([]);
+    expect(sanitiseTurns("nope" as never)).toEqual([]);
+    expect(sanitiseTurns([{ question: 1, answer: 2 }] as never)).toEqual([]);
+    expect(sanitiseTurns([null, undefined] as never)).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it("trims whitespace", () => {
+    const [turn] = sanitiseTurns([{ question: "  Why?  ", answer: "  Because.  " }]);
+    expect(turn.question).toBe("Why?");
+    expect(turn.answer).toBe("Because.");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/lib/intake/turn.ts b/src/lib/intake/turn.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd90529
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/intake/turn.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/**
+ * The interview's hard limits.
+ *
+ * Enforced in code rather than requested in the prompt. A model that decides an
+ * eighth question is warranted must not be able to ask it, and a transcript
+ * arriving from a browser must not be able to grow without bound.
+ */
+
+/** Past roughly this many, people abandon the form. */
+export const MAX_QUESTIONS = 7;
+
+/** One answer. Generous for prose, far short of a denial-of-wallet. */
+export const MAX_ANSWER_LENGTH = 4000;
+
+export interface Turn {
+  question: string;
+  answer: string;
+}
+
+export function canAskMore(turns: Turn[]): boolean {
+  return (turns?.length ?? 0) < MAX_QUESTIONS;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Clean a transcript that arrived from the browser.
+ *
+ * The client holds the transcript between turns, so everything here is
+ * untrusted: the shape, the length, the types. Anything that is not a pair of
+ * non-empty strings is dropped rather than coerced.
+ */
+export function sanitiseTurns(input: Turn[]): Turn[] {
+  if (!Array.isArray(input)) return [];
+
+  const out: Turn[] = [];
+
+  for (const entry of input) {
+    if (!entry || typeof entry !== "object") continue;
+
+    const question = typeof entry.question === "string" ? entry.question.trim() : "";
+    const answer = typeof entry.answer === "string" ? entry.answer.trim() : "";
+
+    // A turn with no answer is not a turn; it is an unanswered question.
+    if (!question || !answer) continue;
+
+    out.push({
+      question: question.slice(0, 500),
+      answer: answer.slice(0, MAX_ANSWER_LENGTH),
+    });
+
+    if (out.length >= MAX_QUESTIONS) break;
+  }
+
+  return out;
+}